Doncaster Rovers F.C. Academy

Doncaster Rovers Academy

Full name	Doncaster Rovers Football Club Academy
Nickname(s)	The Rovers Donny The Vikings
Ground	Cantley Park
Manager	Tony Cook
League	Football League Youth Alliance, North East Conference

Doncaster Rovers Academy is the youth team run by Doncaster Rovers to encourage and develop young footballers in South Yorkshire.

The youth team runs 9 teams and has over 100 players from the ages of 8 to 17. Tony Cook is the current academy manager and was promoted to this position in January 2019 after initially joined the club as head of academy coaching in September 2017. The academy team plays in the Football League Youth Alliance, North East Conference and is only for players below the age of 18. Home games are played at the club's training ground at Cantley Park.

The role of the Doncaster Rovers Academy is to develop players and their abilities to their full potential for the club's first team. Rovers youth team were runners-up of the FA Youth Cup in 1988^[1] and the winners of the Youth Alliance Cup in 2012.^[2] The youth system currently has Category 3 status but with future plans to achieve Category 2 status Academy in the Elite Player Performance Plan which would make Doncaster one of the few teams outside the Premier League with Category 2 status.^[3]

Current squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player — GK  ENG Tom Chambers 41 GK  ENG Jake Oram 34 DF  ENG Jak Whiting 39 DF  ENG Alex Fletcher 28 DF  ENG Bobby Faulkner 36 DF  ENG Charlie Petch — DF  ENG Freddie Allen — DF  ENG Chris Pooley — MF  ENG Will Green 40 MF  ENG Faris Khan

No. Pos. Nation Player 37 MF  ENG Jack Raper — MF  ENG Joshua Lindley — MF  ENG Justin Bennett — MF  ENG Harry Wood 38 MF  ENG Will Flint 42 MF  ENG Sam Straughan-Brown — FW  ENG Ethan Harrison 35 FW  ENG Jack Goodman (on loan at Stamford until 25 January 2023) — FW  ENG Tom Parkinson — FW  ENG Owen Scattergood — FW  ENG Max Adamson — MF  ENG Franklin Middleton

Players listed in bold have signed a professional deal with Doncaster Rovers but are still eligible to play for the U18's.

^[4]

Staff

Role	Name
Academy Manager	Tony Cook
Head of Academy Operations	Calum Oakenfold
Head of Coaching	Steve Welsh
Lead Youth Development Coach - 13 – 16	Frank Sinclair
Foundation Lead Coach - 7 -12	Adam Pilgrim
Head of Goalkeeping	Steve Hernandez

^[5]

Age Groups

There are currently 9 squads at the Academy.

• Under 18
• Under 16
• Under 15
• Under 14
• Under 13
• Under 12
• Under 11
• Under 10
• Under 9

Notable Academy Graduates

The following are players from Doncaster's academy team past or present who have gone on to play in the top 2 tiers of the Football League, or the top tier in another country with prominent national leagues.

Kevin Bird Rufus Brevett Stan Brookes Brian Deane Mike Elwiss

Ron Flowers Paul Green Darius Henderson[6] James Husband Alick Jeffrey Brian Makepeace

Mark Rankine Paul Raven Glynn Snodin Ian Snodin Neil Woods

References

1. "FA Youth Cup Past Winners". Archived from the original on 3 April 2015.
2. "ITV/FA Youth Final".
3. "Special report: All systems go with Rovers' youth remit - Ben Mawson".
4. "Academy Profiles" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 October 2014.
5. "Doncaster Rovers Academy Staff".
6. "Doncaster Rovers/Darius Henderson". YouTube. 27 July 2008. Retrieved 13 August 2012.

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